Lathe with a part manipulator

ABSTRACT

Lathe with pieces manipulating device, with at least a head ( 2 ) and at least a tool-bearing turret ( 13 ), being situated at the upper part of the bench structure ( 1 ) at least a trolley ( 6 ) situated on longitudinal guides ( 5 ), on which at least one manipulating device ( 7 ) is incorporated which includes two operative grips for the assembly of the pieces ( 3 ) to be machined, in disposition of the mentioned manipulating device ( 7 ) on a support ( 8 ) incorporated in vertical movement assembly on the trolley ( 6 ), while the trolley ( 6 ) is situated in transverse movement assembly on an assembly foundation ( 10 ) on longitudinal guides ( 5 ).

The present invention refers to a lathe foreseen of means to manipulate the pieces to be machined, in the sense that the pieces are carried to the place where they are machined and after being machined they are taken away to be substituted for another new piece to be machined, offering in such aspects a functionality which moreover makes the use of the lathe advantageous for its application.

Respect to the lathes destined to machining heavy pieces, the placing of conveyor belts installed as accessories of the lathe or even being part of the same is well known.

A known realization in this sense is the disposition of a mobile gantry, with moving and manipulation means, in assembly on movement guides situated as an accessory to the lathe. This solution is complicated and bulky, due to the fact that the structure the transporting gantry requires and its functional individuality with means which are independent from the lathe.

Spanish Patent P 0465162 introduces a loader-store of pieces, which can be connected as an accessory to the lathe, having this loader-store some means to place the pieces successively at an outlet, where they can be taken by a tilting manipulator mounted on a shaft. This solution is in turn complicated and expensive and it does not solve in a satisfactory way the complete feeding process and the collection of the pieces to be machined.

Patent EP 0539837 introduces a device with two manipulators, one to place the pieces to be machined and the other to collect them from the lathe once they are machined; resulting this solution complicated and expensive, both for the installation and for its operation.

Solutions are also known which have the head and the counterpoint of the lathe in a common trolley which is movable till a collecting place and store of the pieces, so that by means of the separation and approaching of the head and the counterpoint, on the mentioned bearing trolley of the same, the mentioned pieces are collected and left, moving them between the place of collection or the store and the place where they are machined, by means of the trolley movement.

This solution has the inconvenience that as the head is situated on a movable trolley, the actuation means of the head shall also be incorporated on the trolley, so that for great actuation powers the trolley needs to have greater dimensions due to the needed activation means, which brings also about the need to increase the dimension of the trolley holding means in its movable assembly.

Patent DE 19911156, on the other hand, includes a solution in which the head and the counterpoint of the lathe are incorporated on two independent trolleys which can be moved on horizontal and vertical guides to move the mentioned pieces between the place where they are machined and the point of collection or storage point.

In this solution the head is also incorporated on a movable trolley, which brings about the same inconveniences of the previous solution for high powers, as the actuation means of the head shall be included in the corresponding movable trolley. And on the other hand, due to the upwards movable disposition of the trolleys, the tool-carrying turret is situated beyond the machining area, so that the shavings and the refrigeration liquids of the machining fall on the mentioned turret.

In front of all this, according to the present invention, a lathe is proposed which is based on a different structural realization, with which the previously mentioned inconveniences of the known solutions are eliminated in an advantageous and practical way bringing about some functional features which improve the service of the lathe of application.

This lathe object of the invention includes a bench which determines a structure on which the lathe head is incorporated fixedly in vertical or in horizontal disposition, being at least one bearing trolley of a manipulator guided in the assembly on the mentioned structure of the bench to move the pieces to be machined till the machining position and take them away after the operation.

The bearing trolley of the manipulator is situated in longitudinal movement assembly on the lathe bench structure, determining the mentioned trolley moreover a transverse movement disposition and a vertical movement disposition of the set that makes up the manipulating device.

On the other hand, the disposition of the manipulating device itself on the bearing trolley includes an assembly which allows rotation and tilting movements of the manipulating device in a realization with two operative grips, by means of which they can take either part independently, in the operating function.

With this disposition, the manipulating device can move and collect the pieces to be machined from a feeding store and take them to the machining position on the lathe, as well as taking them away after the machining to unload them in the outlet container; allowing the double grip of the manipulating device to collect the piece and leave another one in one only operation movement, both in the machining place and in the feeding place and the place of unloading, which eases up the substitution of the pieces of application on the lathe, reducing to a minimum the inactivity time of the machining for the substitution of the pieces.

Thanks to the fixed disposition of the head on the structure of the lathe bench, the machining operation can be established with means incorporated on the head itself or from means situated independently on the bench with a transmission from them to the head, which allows the use of activating means of any power without it being necessary for the head fastening means to have an excess dimension.

The head and the counterpoint (if there is one) can be conventional ones, with the possibility for example to incorporate rollers of 120 millimetre diameter or more, without it being compulsory for the structure to have an excess dimension. And also, the pieces can be manipulated and machined, for example from 10 to 500 millimetre diameter and 200 to 2000 millimetre length, without having to modify the lathe structure.

The tool-supporting turret of the lathe can on the other hand be incorporated on the same bearing trolley of the pieces manipulating device, which reduces the necessary activation means to move both elements; being situated this mobile set above the machining area, which avoids the dropping of shavings and the refrigerating liquids of the machining on the tool-supporting turret.

The pieces manipulating device can nevertheless also be situated in a trolley independent from the tool-bearing turret, which brings about a reduction of the inactive machining times as the manipulating device can move and carry out the operations corresponding to its function while carrying out the machining. More than one tool-bearing turret can also be situated on the same guides to move the part manipulating trolley, to carry out simultaneous machining operations.

Thus, with the lathe object of the invention, advantages are reached, which make the use during the job to be developed more efficient and practical, making the following aspects to be outstanding:

-   -   The needed time to incorporate and collect the pieces to be         applied is reduced.     -   A head with a bigger size can be situated without having to         increase the dimension of the lathe structure.     -   The fastening of the pieces to be machined is more rigid than         with the solutions with mobile head.     -   The charging capacity is greater than with the solutions where         the head is at the same time the manipulating device.     -   With the fixed head, the tool-bearing turret suffers positioning         variations during the first passages of the machining, which are         a greater trimming, but the position is corrected by the         material recovering, so that in the last passages with a minor         trimming the machining is carried out with precision, reaching         this way a more perfect machining than with the solutions with         mobile head, with which the piece suffers positioning variations         during the greater trimming passages, maintaining the         uncorrected position till the end of the machining.

In view of all this, the mentioned lathe of the invention certainly has some very advantageous features, acquiring own life and preferable character respect to the known lathes with the same application.

FIG. 1 shows in schematic perspective a realization of the preconized lathe with vertical head.

FIG. 2 shows a lathe realization with horizontal head actuated by transmission from independent means of the same.

FIG. 3 is a perspective of the lathe according to the realization with horizontal head foreseen of actuation means incorporated on the same.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged detail in perspective of the manipulator with double grip of the lathe.

FIGS. 5 to 8 are schemes corresponding to several non limitative possibilities of practical realizations of the lathe with vertical head, within the frame of the invention.

FIGS. 9 to 13 show respective schemes corresponding to several non limitative possibilities of practical realizations of the lathe with horizontal head.

The lathe object of the invention has a bench which determines a structure (1), on which the fastening head (2) and rotary activation of the pieces (3) to be machined are situated in fixed disposition.

The head (2) can be vertical, as in FIG. (1), to carry out the machining of the pieces (3) of application situated on it; but it can also be horizontal, as in FIGS. 2 and 3, having in this case the pieces (3) to be machined situated between the head (2) and a corresponding counterpoint (4) or other complementary fastening means.

The structure (1) of the bench of the machine determines at the upper part some longitudinal guides (5) on which at least a trolley (6) is incorporated in mobile assembly, in which a manipulator (7) is situated to carry the pieces (3) to the machining position and take them away after the machining.

According to a feature of the invention, as it is observed in greater detail on FIG. 4, the manipulating device (7) is foreseen of two operative grips (7.1 and 7.2), being situated in a tilting disposition which allows to situate the mentioned grips (7.1 and 7.2) indifferently in a position to collect the piece (3) and in an empty waiting position or holding a piece (3).

The manipulator (7) is incorporated on a support (8), by means of which it can be moved vertically on the trolley (6) along some assembly guides (9) of the mentioned support (8); while the trolley itself (6) is situated on a foundation (10), in guided assembly respect to some transverse guides (11) of the mentioned foundation (10), thus with the possibility to move transversely on the same.

Thus, thanks to the disposition itself of the assembly on the support (8), to the disposition of the support (8) respect to the trolley (6), to the disposition of the trolley (6) on the foundation (10) and to the disposition of the mentioned foundation (10) on the longitudinal guides (5) of the structure (1), the manipulator (7) can carry out all the necessary movements to collect the pieces (3) to be machined, from a feeder (12), to carry them till situating them on the head (2) for their machining; as well as to take the machined pieces (3) to the place of unloading.

Thanks to the double grip (7.1 and 7.2), the head (7) allows moreover to carry a part (3) to be machined, to the head (2), for instance with grip (7.1) and by means of grip (7.2) take the piece (3), once it has been machined, away from the head (2), which reduces considerably the piece (3) substitution time, as the incorporation of a new part (3) to be machined and the withdrawal of the previously machined piece (3) is carried out by means of the same operation that moves the manipulator (7). In the same way, the withdrawal and unloading of the pieces (3) can be carried out by means of the same movement operation of the manipulator (7), if the unloading of the machined pieces (3) is carried out at the same place where the pieces (3) to be machined are collected or in an adjacent place.

The tool-bearing turret (13) of the lathe can be incorporated o the same trolley (6) which supports the manipulating device (7), with which, by means of only the activation means of the mentioned trolley (6) the movements of the manipulating device (7) can be carried out to place and withdraw the pieces (3) respect to the head (2), as well as the movements of the tool-bearing turret (13) for the machining.

Nevertheless, that disposition supposes the disabling of the turret (13) during the use of the manipulating device (7) and the disabling of the latter during the use of the turret (13), which reduces the productivity level of the lathe considerably.

Therefore, the incorporation of the tool-bearing turret (13) on an independent trolley (14), situated on the same guides (5) of the upper part of the structure (1) of the bench, with which the manipulating device (7) and the tool-bearing turret (13) can be used simultaneously in an independent way, being it possible to unload a machined piece (3) and collect another new piece (3) to be machined, while the machining of a third piece (3) situated on the head (2) is being carried out, increasing with this the lathe yield, as the empty inoperative machining times are reduced to minimum.

On the same guides (5) of the bench structure (1), moreover, other accessory trolleys supporting other tool-bearing turrets and other susceptible manipulators to carry out multiple operations related to the pieces (3) of application, with some minimum inactive time of the machining.

FIGS. 5 to 8 show schematically different possibilities of the practical disposition of the lathe, in the realization with the vertical head (2); representing FIG. 5 a disposition with a trolley (6) in which a manipulating device (7) and the tool bearing turret (13) are incorporated, FIG. 6 shows a disposition with a manipulating device (7) supporting trolley (6) and another independent trolley (14) which supports a tool-bearing turret (13), FIG. 7 a disposition with a supporting trolley (6) supporting a manipulating device (7) together with a tool-bearing turret (13) and another independent trolley (14) having a second tool-bearing turret (13) and FIG. 8 a disposition with two heads (2) and above both supporting trolleys (14) of both tool-bearing turrets (13) and an intermediate trolley (6) with two manipulating devices (7) in a double manipulating device.

FIGS. 9 and 13 show in turn different possibilities of the practical realization of the lathe with the horizontal head (2), representing FIGS. 9, 10 and 11 respective similar dispositions of those corresponding to FIGS. 5, 6 and 7, in this realization, while FIG. 12 is a disposition as the one of FIG. 9 but with two facing heads (2) instead of one head (2) and a counterpoint (4), corresponding FIG. 13 to a similar disposition to that of FIG. 8, in this realization.

The mentioned possibilities of practical disposition of the lathe, in both realizations, are nevertheless not limitative, as others can also be established, fulfilling with the concept of the invention.

The set of tool-bearing turrets (13) and the counterpoint (4) (if there is one), can also be substituted for a machining unit which is complemented with the part fixing head (3) for the machining or with the corresponding fastening and fixing means.

In the dispositions with the horizontal head (2), moreover a complementary tool-bearing turret (13) can be incorporated on the trolley situated beyond the machining area, which allows to carry out complementary machining passages in practically a simultaneous way with each passage that is carried out with the means of the upper part, allowing to reduce the time to be used in the machining of the pieces (3).

The fixed disposition of the head (2) assures in any case an immobility which maintains the piece (3) fixing stable, allowing to reach a machining with a great perfection.

The mentioned fixed disposition of the head (2) allows moreover that the activation means of the rotary operation of the plate of the same, can be integrated in the head (2) itself, as in the realization of FIG. 3, or it can have some independent actuation means (15), to establish, by means of transmission (16), the head activation (2), as in the realization of FIG. 2.

On the other hand, referring to the fixed head (2), activation means (15) can be installed of any power and rollers with great dimensions so that the functional set results resistant, admitting the machining of big parts (3), without requiring the lathe structure great dimensions. 

1. Lathe with pieces manipulating device, of the kind that includes at least a head (2), and at least a tool-bearing turret (13), incorporating on longitudinal guides (5) at least a trolley (6) holding a manipulating device (7) for the incorporation and collection of the pieces 93) to be machined, characterized in that a tool-bearing turret (13) is situated on the same trolley (6) holding the manipulating device (7), for the machining of the pieces (3). 2-5. (canceled)
 6. Lathe with pieces manipulating device, according to claim 1, characterized in that the head (2) is situated fixedly on the structure (1) of the lathe bench, establishing the actuation of the mentioned head from independent activation means (15) by a transmission (16). 